Accessibility Links

Can you live on £67,000?

Sir Malcolm Rifkind’s claim that he can’t live on an MP’s salary has disgusted many families, writes Daniel Johnson

Daniel Johnson

March 1 2015, 12:01am, The Sunday Times

Rarely has Westminster witnessed a more sudden fall from grace than that of the Right Honourable Sir Malcolm Rifkind, KCMG, PC, QC, MP. A week ago he was a respected elder statesman, chairman of the Commons intelligence and security committee, darling of the Kensington Conservatives. Now he has resigned his committee post, his seat is up for grabs and he is even suspended from the party to which he has belonged for half a century.

How did a former foreign secretary who had been entrusted with state secrets for decades — a canny Scottish lawyer to boot — come so spectacularly unstuck? True, he fell for Channel 4’s cash-for-access sting. But when he told a bogus Chinese firm that he had no salary at all, being “self-employed”,…

Want to read more?

Subscribe now and get unlimited digital access on web and our smartphone and tablet apps, free for your first month.